


The Many Charmed Lives of Midoriya Izuku, and His Fate

by xama



Category: The Chronicles of Chrestomanci - Diana Wynne Jones, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: BNHA but magic, Fusion, Gen, Nine-lived Enchanters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-02
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-11-07 23:49:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17970407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xama/pseuds/xama
Summary: When she looked back on it, Millie supposed they were lucky that only one life was lost. There were a few grievous injuries, but nothing really incurable; it wasn't one of their big affairs with multi-series-spanning crime syndicates or conspiracies to take over the Place In-Between, it was more along the lines of that incident with the mouse in Caprona. Small and manageable, definitely not potentially world-ending or series-spanning, although terribly frightening and tense to those intimately involved.-“I can respect you, little man – that's why I won't force you away. If you choose to die here, for your unworthy friend, I won't try to convince you otherwise; it's your life.”It was Izuku's life, and if he had to die to defend Iida, he would.And he did.And then he got back up.





	The Many Charmed Lives of Midoriya Izuku, and His Fate

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nival_kenival](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nival_kenival/gifts).



> I meant this to be a timely birthday present, but it got out of hand, I'm a few days late, and still have a long way to go. Woops.  
> Background info: In Chrestomanci, in world 12-A, America is ruled by the Incas; therefore Commodore Perry never opened up Japan, the Boshin war and Meiji restoration never happened, and the Tokugawa Shogunate is still in power.  
> Hatamoto = Direct retainers of the Shogun, generally live in Edo (Tokyo), technically have the power to meet face-to-face with the Shogun, get paid a direct stipend from his coffers. Daimyo = Own land that produces over 10,000 kokus of rice (it's a unit of measurement, basically bales of rice)  
> Japan wasn't opened up by force, they didn't colonize Korea, and they're about on the same level technologically as the rest of the world. So trains, some cars, that's about it. They have diplomatic relations with some countries, but they're not like, open open. That's about as deep as I'm going to go into it in this story. (because I don't want to overstep my knowledge of the Edo period and make a fool of myself).  
> (Hosu in BNHA is a fictional city, but there's a real-life region of Japan called Hosu, and part of it was a han called 'Koshi' under the Tokugawa Shogunate, so that's where that comes from.)

When she looked back on it, Millie supposed they were lucky that only one life was lost. There were a few grievous injuries, but nothing really incurable; it wasn't one of their big affairs with multi-series-spanning crime syndicates or conspiracies to take over the Place In-Between, it was more along the lines of that incident with the mouse in Caprona. Small and manageable, definitely not potentially world-ending or series-spanning, although terribly frightening and tense to those intimately involved.

Strictly speaking, they shouldn't have gotten involved at all – it wasn't like the Pinhole incident, where countless beings were held prisoner for centuries, for one thing that was on English soil and withing their jurisdiction. Strictly speaking, the Chrestomanci and his staff shouldn't have gotten involved without a direct request from the Shogun, or at least one of the larger Daimyo.

Still, Millie thought, it was a good thing that they were called in – they wouldn't have discovered Izuku otherwise.

* * *

 

It had been a relatively normal day for Tenya, he had gone through his normal routine, gone to school, participated in all of the day's lessons, and had planned to give Midoriya tips on proper swordsmanship after lessons. All-in-all a good day, up until it wasn't.

He had been pulled out of classes by one of his family's retainers, and informed that his brother had been – incapacitated.

Tenya was understandably quite distraught, even more-so when he learned that the one who had attacked his brother had not been captured. He was apparently a serial-killer, and went after people that he deemed to be unworthy of their place in society.

How could Tensei be unworthy of... of anything? He was everything Tenya admired and wanted to be, everything that their parents wanted him to be. He was the ideal son, the ideal heir: he respected their mother and followed her orders, and had done the same for their father until his death; he was a well-respected Hatamoto who did his duty admirably, to the point where there were rumors that the Shogun was planning to bestow upon him enough koukus of rice to elevate their family's status to Daimyo. Who would dare attempt to kill such a shining star? Who would stoop to such an evil action?

Tenya couldn't bare it – if this fiend hadn't been caught yet, would he ever be? Who would he go after next, would he go after the famously fair South Bugyo of Edo? Would he kill Yagi-san, the third son of a poor Hatamoto who, rather than lazing around causing trouble, had decided to devote his life to teaching? What were the serial killer's standards, that he would attack Tenya's brother for being 'unworthy'?

This had to end now, and Tenya had to be the one to end it. For Tensei, for all of this murderer's past victims, and for his would-be future victims, this would end.

Later, Tenya would think, it did end, and he did play a role in it. It also ended with two of his close friends being spirited away to a castle in England, with irrevocable changes to the staff of their school, and with Bakugou being given mandated anger-management sessions at the end of which he too would be spirited away, and of course with him having permanent scars (although thanks to the English enchanters they were only superficial). He almost immediately regretted his actions, and some of the consequences, but he would never regret getting Stain off the streets.

* * *

 

Izuku wasn't exactly sure why he was in Koshi – he knew that there was something wrong with Iida and wanted to help, and his feet just took him there. He was supposed to be with Gran Torino all this week, but they'd already figured out why he couldn't use his magic and dealt with it. He wasn't all that used to having friends, but he knew that you were supposed to take care of them – and so he was here.

Wandering down a random alley looking for his friend, who could theoretically be miles away, in a completely different area, possibly even a different island. But then he heard shouting, and the sound of fencing, and he ran up and saw Iida fighting a large man in a horrible mask. He saw Iida fall to some sort of paralysis spell, bow his head in defeat – saw the man raise his sword.

His feet propelled him forward, and he gathered magic into his voice, into performative speech. “Stop!”

It worked, for a moment, and then suddenly he was fighting for his friend's life. He was fighting, and he was not going to back down – no matter what Iida or that magician slowly bleeding out against the building kept telling him to do. Stain tried, but dropped it when Izuku refused.

“I can respect you, little man – that's why I won't force you away. If you choose to die here, for your unworthy friend, I won't try to convince you otherwise; it's your life.”

It was Izuku's life, and if he had to die to defend Iida, he would.

And he did.

And then he got back up, feeling renewed, feeling somehow more sure of himself, and picked up Yagi-san's – now his own – sword.

Stain's eyes widened, Iida stopped screaming, the magician stopped cursing at another life lost – the entire alley was silent.

And then Stain laughed – it was an eerie sort of cackle, cryptic in its way. “So you're one of those. I wonder, little Enchanter, how many lives you have left? And you're willing – eager even – to waste all of them on these wastes of breath?”

“Yes.” If Izuku was surprised to still be breathing, to be called an Enchanter, he didn't show it.

And then Stain lowered his sword-arm. “I won't be the one to deprive the worlds of someone like you, Midoriya.” He had apparently picked up on Izuku's name from Iida's yelling.

Iida took this as a cue to resume his yelling, and started visibly struggling, physically and magically. Stain ignored him, and just stood there, staring at Midoriya, who was beginning to feel distinctly weirded out.

This was when the magician on the ground finally found his voice, and finally came to his senses, yelling out a vaguely accented “CHRESTOMANCI!”

Stain started laughing again.

 

 


End file.
